For students seeking to expand their résumés, an internship is an attractive way to gain experience and open a path to future full paying jobs. However, unpaid internships can also lead to the exploitation of younger employees, who may feel coerced to take on obligations in order to develop their careers.

Recent court battles in the United States have highlighted this struggle, with interns who worked for Fox Searchlight Pictures filing a class action lawsuit against their employers. Interns working for other large media companies such as Condé Nast, Warner Music and NBC Universal have previously won million-dollar settlements after suing these companies for employing them in positions similar to those of regular employees, thus depriving their experiences of any educational component.

The NYU New York Wasserman Center for Career Development has also tightened its guidelines for posting unpaid internships to its CareerNet database.

NYU Abu Dhabi is not immune to the complications of balancing internship demand with fair employment guidelines, with multiple unpaid internships offered on NYUAD CareerNet.

Associate Director of the NYUAD Career Development Center Dana Downey noted that internships posted on CareerNet are screened by their job description; if they do not include a developmental component or serve as a training opportunity for the student, then the CDC will work with the employer to either list the job as part-time, or develop a greater educational component.

One example of this process was when Studio X and Studio Y, the two hair salons soon opening on campus, sought to recruit interns on CareerNet earlier this semester.

Staff from the CDC met with the employer and, after concluding that the Studios could not pay students, worked to enhance the internship's educational component by arranging for the marketing director of the Studios' company to oversee interns and provide regular feedback and guidance.

Internships posted on CareerNet must comply with the six criteria in the US Fair Labor Standards Act, which makes it clear that the internship must be educational, must not displace other paid employees and must not provide any immediate advantage to the employer.

Other universities in Abu Dhabi and the UAE, such as Paris Sorbonne, Zayed University and United Arab Emirates University, require students to complete internships for credit. This can create a dynamic in which employers are more accustomed to providing internships to these students for no pay.

With part-time paid work only open to NYUAD students over the last two years, transitioning to a norm of paying students for their work can be difficult. As of Oct. 3, there were 27 unpaid internships advertised on NYUAD’s CareerNet and 12 paid part-time positions.

Assistant Dean of Students and the Director of the Career Development Center Hazel Raja said she was hopeful that more employers in the UAE would be willing to take on paid interns or create paid positions, but was aware of current difficulties.

“If you compare our students to other universities’ students, and employers don't have to pay these other universities’ students, it is a bit of a struggle,” she explained.

Rather than highlighting competition between university students, the CDC chooses to focus on providing valuable, productive internship experiences. To ensure that students undertake internships which they find meaningful, the CDC encourages interns to reflect on whether they are given proper mentoring and guidance.

“You don't say, ‘Well I'm not going to follow what [other universities are] doing, I'm going to [only offer paid positions],’ because you're going to struggle in creating opportunities for your students," Raja noted.

"So what I thought is most important is to create the right types of internships. Ones that are meaningful,” she added.